What has four arms, eight sticks, a brain suffused with two million musical motifs, and creates some smooth tunes? As it turns out, Shimon the marimba-playing robot.
Robots clean rivers and sort waste, monitor ecosystems, and inspect renewable-energy infrastructure. But even the greenest robot has an environmental footprint.
EPFL engineers have designed acoustic cavities that convert sound waves into thrust, propelling small robots and ultralight aerial vehicles without on-board actuators or electronics.